System failing

steve

chris the ones we usually buy are shipped to your door for about $7 postage and would probably be a fair bit cheaper over the net than in town.

can someone with the link handy link to it please?

KudaPucat

yeah in town it's liek $26 per test. The mastrer kit ppl refer to here has all 4 standard tests (and probably more) for $50... it surely is a bargain.,

steve

has the price gone up? i remember it being around $46

KudaPucat

forgive me for rounding, I've not bought any, so it was an approximate by memory

steve

sorry.

veggie boy

I refuse to post the link - because it would just be pandering to Steve's lazyness :lol:

. Do a search on 'Aquarium Pharmaceuticals' and you will find links in here to the fish shop that we all buy from ;-)

.

Give you one more hint - the shop (and site) name is theaquariumshop ;-)

Good news is that their kits are only $40 - bad news is they are out of stock :-/

TimC

I pay about $29.95 each for good Sera test kits. Expensive yes but still reliable and will last a while. The cheaper kits are definitely better value for money.

I am just a perfectionist...

GotFish?

Chris get something to slowly raise your ph to around 7 do this over the course of about a week, 5 days whatever, slow adjustments are better for the fish, once your system is there everything else should (in a perfect world) fall into place. Your system has been running for over a year so I'd suspect that its near bullet proof just needs a minor tweeking.
Pictures, do it!
Pm the spam assassin if you need assistance on posting them she is the expert on most tings, even wrestles gators in her spare time.

janethesselberth

John, we need to know if her system has ammonia or nitrite readings that are too high. Raising pH would kill even more fish if she has high readings there.

GotFish?

JP, I understand. It's my belief the system problems arise simply from the ph being to low, been running since the fall of 2006 so its mature there would be no reason for any ammonia or nitrate readings. I'll put my cash on them being zero. The problems started in November at the same as the feed was switched. Thats what, 3 months? If it was anything serious the fish would of all carked by now. So I'll stick with my original because I'm sometimes stuborn, slowly raise your PH and eat your veggies....Wink...

Chris Meier

Hi,
Back at last, thanks for info on test kits. My nearest 'Big Smoke', is Ipswich Qld, a bit sad but I did manage to get onto a master test kit, so here are the readings.

Fish tank : Rain Water tank:
Temp 25C Time 1730

PH 6.0 Ph 6.0
Amonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80 Nitrate 0

I have stopped feeding and todays air temps have stayed between 20-29C.
No floaters today.

? How much trouble needs to be taken to remove root material from the grow beds. I remove what I can but know I don't get it all, how could this affect the system.

Chris

steve

GOOD! reading to digest!
i have quoted your original post as i couldnt remember what the original problem was!

Quote:

Hi, I am new to the forum but have been running a system since september 2006. I have a 2000 ltr fish tank which is stocked with 100 Silver Perch, of various size ranging from 100g - 250g.

The water from this tank is pumped to 6 x 600 ltr grow beds which are filled with 10mm gravel. It's a flood drain system with water following back to the fish tank via a main drain. The system is housed in a enviro tunnel.

The system from start up until November 2007 operated as expected, as described by Joel's manual. In November however there was a sudden deterioration in water quality that I have been unable to correct todate despite partial and complete water changes. The water become dark green in less than a week after a complete water change.

The fish on a whole seem healthy, hungery and active but at irregular intervals one or two of the medium or smaller fish will start to swimming to the surface and later swim upside down. At this stage they do try to right themselves but enevitably die. There has been evidence of some reddish marks on some of these fish.

Another factor that may be questionable is a change in feed. They were being fed 2mm Juvenile pellets but around November this was changed to 4mm grower pellets for native fish.

The growing beds have been very productive but at the moment are generally producing herbs that are not as prolic and healthy as last summer.

If anyone could help me out with any advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

steve

measure the PH again for me as EARLY as you can n the morning.

for the moment i'd try and get the ph back up again using calcium carbonate in the growbeds. it will take probably a week (which is a good thing, fish dont like quick changes)

Do you have sufficient aeration in the tank? you fish will be bigger than what they were last summer and the high temps will reduce the DO.......

get some air in there too. use the retun water to help out with this (splashing is good and its free)

shade the tank too.

i had simmilar probs (the floating )with my silvers when the water became THICK dark green. i did a 50% water change and blacked out the tank for a week or so.

hope all this helps

janethesselberth

Add some composting worms to the growbeds. They will get rid of the rotting roots for you.

And yes, sounds safe to start raising the pH slowly--how low does your pH test measure?

Calcium carbonate is best, and you can get that fairly easily in a feed/farm store. Look for crushed oyster shells that chickens would be given. You could also work with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) or potassium bicarbonate (available at wine hobby stores for buffering pH of wine). The bicarbonates will raise pH higher, so you want to be very careful with those. Go for crushed shell if at all possible.

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System failing

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